1. About your project

What your organisation would like to achieve through your project

Create a shining and persistent beacon of hope in response to an ecological, climate and political crisis. Its form is a well-used, living, multi- functional community assembly area at the heart of a wildlife forest garden, a knowledge and learning network and a long-term digital legacy. These will act as both inspiration and a detailed template for like-minded communities that want to bring together wildlife regeneration, resilient and local food growing and accessible communal activities. The garden can be used as an assembly for direct democracy in action, as a meeting place, an outside classroom, an outdoor workshop for local charities and businesses, a visitor attraction to benefit the village, an example of best practise in wildlife gardening habitat and native plants, an edile perennial showcase and source of inspiration, a national repository of a bilingual story and reference for other community gardens. Or simply a place to hang out.

About the heritage you will focus on as part of this project

We will focus on natural and cultural heritage. Wales is one of the most nature depleted countries in the world. The proposed site of Gardd Gobaith Cilgerran Hope Garden is within “unimproved pasture” on a heavy clay soil, with fairly limited species diversity. However, there is great potential to increase this diversity and regenerate the natural heritage, as the site is in a region of ancient temperate rainforest, with a high rainfall, historically clean air and consistently warm temperatures.

Within walking distance are two nature reserves, with woodland, river and marshland habitat, and the accompanying pool of species. The cultural heritage is the knowledge, skills and language that enable our relationship with the land and each other. A name can be incredibly powerful in establishing connections, and by reclaiming the lost words of nature (geiriau coll byd natur) we can increase our awareness of nature’s processes, and this in turn informs the skills required to grow our food and build our infrastructure in ways that enhance our environment. By focussing on co-designing the space with the local community, using the accessible processes inherent in a Community Assembly (radical inclusivity, active listening and trust in the process), local knowledge, expertise and culture will have the opportunity to come to the fore, rather than being imposed from above.

Why the heritage is at risk

Our natural and cultural heritage are intertwined. According to the State of Nature Wales 2023, 18% of our species are at risk of extinction, and we are already one of the most nature depleted countries in the world. The number of Welsh speakers in Wales in 2022 was approximately 900,000, out of a population of about 3 million, and Welsh is classed as a “vulnerable language” by the Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger. In 2014, the Oxford Junior Dictionary lost the words Acorn, Buttercup and Conker in favour of more “modern” words. This loss is even more precarious for the Welsh language. As author Robert McFarlane states, “We do not care for what we do not know, and on the whole we do not know what we cannot name.” Through education, skill-sharing and an accessible digital legacy, these risks can be addressed.

Title of your project

Gardd Gobaith Cilgerran Hope Garden

When your project will happen

1 Jun 2024 to 30 Jun 2025

Project’s address

Pen Y Foidr Allotments, Cilgerran, Cardigan, Pembrokeshire, SA43 2TF

About the advice you received about this project

We have sought advice from local community groups, craftspeople and garden trades:

• Creating community space - Phil Blackwood at BlueGreenCymru has advised on both the design and construction of the covered space. BlueGreenCymru run multiple well-being outdoors workshops.
• Possible sites - discussions with Rachel Auckland, Coordinator of Ceredigion Local Nature Partnership, about areas of deprivation in Ceredigion County. Also site visits with Andrea Sanders from Yr Ardd in Llandysul, Vicky Moller from Grŵp Resilience Pembrokeshire, and Claire Turner from Naturewise Community Forest Garden about siting the project and possible future collaborations.
• Volunteer groups - contacted Pembrokeshire Association of Voluntary Services (PAVS), Ceredigion Association of Voluntary Organisations (CAVO) and Carmarthenshire Association of Voluntary Services (CAVS) to discuss links with local volunteer groups.
• Ecology - in discussion with Yusef Samari from West Wales Biodiversity Information Centre about baseline ecological services and wildlife ID workshops.
• Maintenance & design - site visit with Rosie Gillam from Ffynone Resilience about the Pen Y Foidr allotments for the Hope Garden. Discussed design process and long term maintenance. Also site visit with landowners Mark and Catrin Dellar.
• Landscaping - discussion about construction and costs with local landscaper Oly Sullivan from Preseli Landscapes.
• Fruit trees - consultation with Martin Hayes, local orchardist.
• Seating - consultation with David Hunter from The Coppice Plot about running local workshops to create wooden benches.
• Infrastructure - consultation with Jamie Miller from Ty Pren about creating green roof structures
• Materials - contact with Coedmore National Nature Reserve to discuss locally sourced timber for project
• Materials - consultation with local coppice worker Kingsley Hudson about the use of different cleft woods for different uses
• Community Assembly - consultation with member of Assembly Working Group and Local Group Support teams of climate and ecological emergency campaign group. Training course attendance and discussion with Trust The People about the specifics of running a Community Assembly.
• Documenting - consultation with Dan Ford, video editor, about creation of documentary video.
• Costings for a show garden - the next stage of the project is to take the Hope Garden prototype to RHS Hampton Court as a show garden. We have received costings and advice from Mark Gregory at Landform Consultants. We have also been in discussions with Natalie Gearing, the RHS Show Manager, who welcomed participation by the Hope Garden.

What you will do during your project

Gardd Gobaith Cilgerran Hope Garden offers Cilgerran and surrounding communities a sheltered, accessible and inspirational meeting space, set in a low-maintenance, native, wildlife and edible garden. The design encourages regenerative communication and participation in the group by offering a protected, safe and dry outdoor space with seating. The use of native plants and embedding wildlife habitat into the infrastructure of the garden illustrates how all gardens can become wildlife gardens in a time of ecological crisis. The use of layered perennials for edible crops showcases how resilient and ornamental edible perennials can be when incorporated into an ornamental and self-sustaining garden. At another level, the Hope Garden also serves as a beacon of hope, a model for others showing how to create ecologically sustainable, shared garden spaces that provide abundant crops, and the tools for how to use these processes. All of the designs and the processes will always be available copyright free on the Hope Garden website. The design process itself is co-designed by Pen Y Foidr allotments, following the Community Assembly model. To become a beacon of hope, the next project stage is to recreate the Hope Garden for RHS Hampton Court Flower Show in 2025. Gardd Gobaith Cilgerran Hope Garden, together with Pen Y Foidr allotments, will act as a springboard and prototype for that show garden. The aim is to create a series of Community Assemblies within the Hope Garden over the four days of the Flower Show, discussing topics relating to the ecological, climate and political crisis in a truly inclusive and fair way. This is an opportunity for a very public discussion of the biodiversity and climate emergencies demonstrating a Community Assembly process. The Community Assemblies will be informed by evidence and speakers from wildlife, gardening and climate experts, to create a crucible for positive ideas about nurturing a regenerative atmosphere. Surrounding Assembly participants will be the wildlife forest garden, showcasing biodiversity gardening best practices, diverse native habitat and species, alongside resilient, perennial food crops. Crucially, other local community groups will take away inspiration and knowledge from the four daily Assemblies, learn from the inclusive Community Assembly process and from wildlife forest gardening techniques that they can replicate in their locale. A garden is the place where many people relate to nature and the need for healthier food is shared by all of us. The assembly experience will build on that unity. LPN money will be spent on the consultation, design and construction of the garden.

How you will make sure these digital works meet our digital requirements

The infrastructure of the website runs on Open Source software (Hugo static site generator hosted on Codeberg). The content of the website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. All of the plans, drawings, videos, photographs etc. will all be released under the same license.

How you will maintain the benefits of your project and meet any related costs?

Co-design using the principles of a Community Assembly is an essential part of the process. By involving the community (the Pen Y Foidr allotments, Ysgol Cilgerran, the Fruit & Nut forest garden members, village residents, local businesses, nearby charities etc.), the project as a whole has a much higher chance of persisting, because the community is invested in both its design, construction and maintenance. Another large chunk of the project is the regular videos and newsletters, distributed via YouTube, TikTok and Instagram and (critically) backed up in long term storage and accessible from the website. This social media attention will help galvanise national support for a bilingual educational and ecology focussed project. All the content will be carefully curated and structured, so that long after the creation stage has finished, other community groups will be able to access the plans, ideas and witness the process to inform their own projects. A key part of this long term digital legacy strategy is keeping the running costs to a minimum, hence the choice of a static site and backing up the media content to long term storage. With regards to the garden, local schools, businesses and charities have the opportunity to hire the space, so there will be the potential for income for garden maintenance. In addition, the allotment members will be using the space for regular meetings, and also as a propagation source for edible perennials, so there is an incentive for the maintenance there. As a mature wildlife forest garden, it will require minimal maintenance, as compared to an annual vegetable plot.

Why your project needs to happen?

There is a climate, ecological and political crisis happening now. These are all aspects of the same crisis. We are due to breach the 1.5 ̊C climate threshold set by the Paris Agreement in 2027¹, nearly one in six species are threatened with extinction from Great Britain², and if the decline of democracy continues at the present pace, less than 5% of the world’s population will live in a full democracy by 2026³. A Community Assembly at the heart of a wildlife forest garden is a very powerful symbol of hope and proof of opportunities for stronger collaboration, despite differences of perspective. The forest garden shines a light on our food growing systems, the wildlife aspect shows how we can co-exist within nature, and the Community Assembly is a model for direct democratic participation. Each aspect of the project supports the others; each are required for the project to become sustainable in the longer term and demonstrate to communities elsewhere an effective process for spreading woodland wildlife gardens.

1. World likely to breach 1.5C climate threshold by 2027, scientists warn
2. State of Nature 2023
3. The rise of authoritarianism is misunderstood – and it matters

Specific community your project is dedicated to serving?

Older people 65 and over, young people led, people who are educationally or economically disadvantaged

How your project will save heritage

Heritage, which is anything valued from the past that we want to pass on to future generations, very much includes native wildlife, plants and ecosystems, and crucially also peoples’ relationships and learning within this living tapestry to the food they eat. By creating a hotspot of biodiversity through habitat creation and range of native species, at the heart of which people harvest crops, ideas, actions and plans for the future, people will come to understand, value and share this natural heritage. Furthermore, by regularly practising the skills of active listening, trusting the process and radical inclusivity, which underpin a community assembly, they will be adding to community resilience and strengthening a freshly emerging heritage of community cohesion. We want this project to inspire pride in the community and collaboration, so that its effects overflow into the wider area. There is also the potential for this to be a focal point for visitors who want to learn more about our successes, boosting investment in the local economy and potentially seeding stronger inter-relationships in communities beyond our own.

How your project will protect the environment

The whole purpose of the Hope Garden is to have an overwhelmingly positive environmental and social impact. Wildlife habitat is built-in to the infrastructure of the garden (eg self-binding gravel paths, gabions, pond, hedging, trees). All of the materials will be either recycled (eg the paths and gabion aggregate) or locally sourced (eg the roundwood benches from a local Larch forest). This will model sustainable gardening, which can then be recreated in the gardens and local spaces of those who learn from this project. As important as the materials is the communication of wildlife gardening best practices; this will be achieved via building the profile of the Hope Garden via word of mouth, social media, the project website and a newsletter. The negative environmental impacts will be the non-recycled materials (the gabion metal and path edging) and the machinery required for the hard landscaping. These however are only construction phase impacts, which will be offset by the carbon sequestration of the perennial plants and the massive increase in wildlife populations longer term.

How your project will increase inclusion, access and participation

Currently, there are about 30 people involved in the Pen Y Foidr allotments. They already have plans to collaborate with Cilgerran primary school. By creating the Hope Garden, it will provide a sheltered space for these young students to experience a ready made example of a wildlife edible garden. As well as connecting children to nature, the project can be used as a basis for outdoor learning, which will broaden their education, learn the value of wildlife and their role in conservation. The planned design and construction workshops would raise interest in and attract newcomers to Pen Y Foidr Allotments. The access (by the bike and parking area) and hardstanding paths would open up the space to a wider range of less able-bodied people, offering smoother surfaces for wheelchair and rollator users, or those with mobility difficulties. There is an option to share the disabled access toilet next door. Similarly, having a sheltered area and seating offers opportunities for participation of less able bodied gardeners and learners. Also, members of Pen Y Foidr have also shown interest in running wildlife, horticultural and well-being workshops in the Hope Garden as well, bringing in visitors from a wider local and national area. It is hoped that this might become a project for social prescribing by local GPs surgeries and health practitioners. In terms of cultural access, all the written material will be bilingual and the videos subtitled. The emphasis on the co-design process using Community Assembly principles (radical inclusivity, active listening and trusting the process) opens up what can be a very specialist endeavour to a much wider audience. Finally, the emphasis on leveraging social media to increase the profile of the project combined with the long term digital legacy strategy means that there will be a much wider audience, both nationally and beyond Wales’ borders.

How your project will improve your organisational sustainability

Garden Wild, the Community Interest Company that has assembled the Hope Garden team and is making the application, will be in a much better position to take the Hope Garden forward to an international audience at an RHS flower show. There is also potential to build on the project to deliver similar projects elsewhere. Currently, the CIC is really just a vehicle for grant applications, but a steady flow of work could fund more far-reaching work.

How your organisation is best placed to deliver this project?

Garden Wild has pulled together a talented and experienced team of garden designers, wildlife gardeners, communicators and designers specifically for this project. This has not happened in any way similar in this county before and maybe in Wales. Partners share the vision, the commitment and the skills to pull together a project for wildlife, people and community, a project that will benefit a particular location and group initially, but with the potential to provide continuing inspiration and examples of best practise to many more. Partners feel sure that the project will also generate unanticipated partnerships and complementary projects.

• Jake Rayson - Project manager, designer Wildlife forest garden designer, web designer. Climate activist.
• Denise Ashurst - Community Assembly liaison Community Assembly and co- design structure gardener, wordsmith, democracy advocate & community activist
• Audley Burnett - Coordinator Ex-gardener, therapist & climate activist
• Alex Valk - Garden designer, communications Kitchen gardener, garden designer and garden writer
• Beth Otway - Communications Garden writer and press relations
• Lindy Burleigh - Fundraising consultant 15 years of fundraising experience in the not-for-profit sector, track record of building relationships with trusts and foundations to secure six figure and multi-year grants
• Marianne Jones - Landscape architect Landscape architect with experience in environmental assessment and urban nature conservation

How you will manage running your project?

As the project manager, Jake Rayson has 30 years experience of running his own web design and garden design businesses. This has included costing for hard and soft landscaping. He also works part-time as a Biodiversity Assistant for Ceredigion Council, organising community and volunteer projects. Each and every other member of the team has many years of experience and, critically, the enthusiasm and commitment to see the project through to completion. The key to success will be setting up the co-design process, run as a series of Community Assembly style workshops. There needs to be structure but also flexibility to easily incorporate new ideas into the garden design flow. A great deal of the groundwork has been laid already, in discussing potential workshop leaders from a variety of disciplines from local businesses and charities.

How you will evaluate your project?

From a natural heritage perspective, we will have a baseline ecological survey, run by the West Wales Biodiversity Information Centre (WWBIC). There will be a wildlife ID workshop, and then a follow up ecological survey by Pen Y Foidr allotment members to mark the difference in natural heritage diversity. For the school interactions and the workshops, there will be a simple feedback form, both paper and online, with a count of numbers and a collating of the information. For the co-design and creation process, the Community Assembly principles mean that there is effectively real-time evaluation from the community members, as they are embedded into that process. We will also solicit feedback from partner organisations, such as Ysgol Cilgerran, BlueGreenCymru, WWBIC, the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales, Pembrokeshire Council, Coedmor Nature Reserve etc. Finally, Gardd Gobaith Cilgerran Hope Garden will be quite literally on the map as a tourist destination and a venue, on TripAdvisor, Google Maps and Facebook. People will be able to leave reviews and feedback!

How the Welsh language will be taken into account during the delivery of your project

The website and all of the written material generated for the long-term digital legacy—mainly the newsletter and blog posts—will be bilingual. All of the videos will be subtitled in Welsh. And critically, all of the plants and wildlife features will be labelled bilingually. There are plans for an information board, illustrated by a Welsh speaking nature artist, and that too will be bilingual.

Key challenges or potential risks to your project that you have identified

The key challenges will be organising and co-ordinating the diverse range of workshops and channelling the outcomes into the co-design process; ensuring that every event is photographed and recorded; sustaining a newsletter and writing new material for the video clips; organising the translations around all of these tasks; co-ordinating the timing and detail of landscaping required. As for risks, there are general risks associated with any outdoor site with infrastructure: trip hazards, slipping on wet surfaces, trapping of fingers in doors. The design of the garden will seek to minimise these risks as much as possible, which in turn makes the garden more accessible to more people. For example, by reducing trip hazards, the site will be more accedsible for people with limited mobility. The issue of risks will be incorporated into the design stage. There are also specific risks associated with specific workshops eg tools used for creating wooden benches. In these situations, Jake Rayson will be responsible for organising specific risk assessments.

How much it will cost to deliver your project

Project images